John McManus: It shouldn’t be a big deal to accept British honours in a modern Ireland

What is the problem with an Irish woman who happens to be a dame of the British empire chairing a forum on Irish neutrality?

The Order of the British Empire was established by King George V in 1917 to honour those who had served in a non-combative role and to reward contributions to the arts, sciences, charitable work and public service, according to the British Cabinet Office website.

It is granted in recognition of a “a pre-eminent contribution in any field of activity (usually, but not exclusively, at national level), or in a capacity which will be recognised by peer groups as inspirational and significant nationally and demonstrates sustained commitment”.

It is easy to see how Prof Louise Richardson made the cut in 2022. She has been vice chancellor of Oxford University, principal and vice chancellor of the University of St Andrews and dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advance Study at Harvard. She is currently president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the philanthropic organisation founded by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie in 1911.

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‘An offhand comment’: Louise Richardson on the President’s broadside in the neutrality debate

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The Order of the British Empire is for UK citizens, according to the Cabinet Office. Irish citizens cannot accept honours from a foreign government without the approval of our Government, which is always forthcoming. Many Irish people chose to accept honorary membership of British orders and don’t use them in everyday life. It’s nice to be appreciated.

They include Bob Geldof, Bono, William Trevor, Martin Naughton and many, many more. Other Irish people such as Terry Wogan availed of dual citizenship to be a “substantive” member. I am not aware of any questions being raised about the allegiances of any of the above, or their suitability to play a role in Irish public life.

[ Did President Michael D Higgins cross a line with his neutrality remarks? You bet he did ]

Richardson was born and raised in Waterford and educated at Trinity College, before embarking on her stellar career. She is almost universally referred to as Irish – and how she squared the circle between being Irish and accepting a dameship of the Order of the British Empire is really her business.

The awarding to and acceptance of British honours by Irish people is, at this stage, routine. And let’s not even mention the Irish people living in Northern Ireland who are awarded UK honours. Nobody cares. Or so it seems.

It was against this background that President Michael D Higgins chose to raise the issue of Richardson’s dameship in the context of her chairing of the Government’s Consultative Forum on International Security Policy that starts today.

In a Business Post interview at the weekend, he referred to her as a person “with a very large DBE – Dame of the British empire”, adding that it was “grand”, but “I think that there were a few candidates I could have come up with myself”.

Make of his comments what you will, but it was far from a ringing endorsement of Richardson. It was in fact quite a blunder by Higgins, distracting attention from the legitimate question he raised about the direction of travel of the current debate about neutrality.

Higgins subsequently apologised “for any offence which he may have inadvertently caused to Professor Richardson by what was a throwaway remark”. We must take his apology at face value, and hopefully Richardson does too.

[ President issues unprecedented apology over ‘throwaway remarks’ about neutrality chairwoman ]

It is not that simple, however. Whether he meant them or not, his comments have had an unfortunate effect. They appeal to a certain sort of atavistic Irish nationalism that is out of kilter with modern reality.

It did not take long for others to pick up his comments. Paul Murphy, the People before Profit TD for Dublin South West, was quick out of the traps to tweet: “The public are paying a Dame of the British Empire €650 a day for Chairing the sham forums.”

Murphy is entitled to oppose the forums, and promote his view of Irish neutrality.

What he should not be doing is traducing the reputation of one of the most successful Irish women of her generation, who has been honoured by the British government for her services to academia and philanthropy – not for her role in an empire that has not existed anywhere other than the imaginations of deluded Brexiteers for half a century or more.

Based on their comments on social media, Murphy and his colleagues seem blind to the disconnect between the tone of the discourse they use on social media and his party’s single most sensible policy of support for migrants and opposition to the nascent far-right.

The fact that Murphy – and to an extent Higgins – are apparently oblivious to this incongruity speaks volumes about how we see the British and ourselves. We like to see ourselves as a progressive, inclusive, tolerant nation. But all bets are off when it comes to “the Brits” and their fellow travellers.

The references to Richardson’s dameship of the British empire has the same toxic undertones as our unconcealed delight at the disaster that is Brexit. We can tie ourselves up in semantic knots arguing that somehow it’s different and is not offensive because it’s the Brits. It isn’t. The President and Murphy should know better.